Norwalk topples Stamford

Published 4:34 pm, Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Two days after blowing a 13-point first half lead and losing to Central at home, Norwalk maintained its focus throughout Monday's contest against Stamford and beat the Black Knights 82-69.

It was senior night for the Bears, so it was only fitting that Norwalk received huge contributions from seniors such as Nick Boccanfuso (17 points) and Saeed Soulemane and Jabari Dear (16 points each).

"It was my last home game at Norwalk High so I had to play hard and put up a show for the fans," Soulemane said.

Norwalk ran its record to 13-6, while Stamford fell to 6-13.

Boccanfuso scored seven points in the opening quarter as Norwalk crept out to a 20-19 lead.

Stamford hung tight with three 3-pointers in the first quarter, including two by senior Evans Antoine (15 points).

"I thought offensively we played really well. We played about as well as we've played all year offensively," Stamford coach Danny Melzer said.

The lead changed hands several times in the second quarter. But after Roy Kane Jr. of Norwalk connected from beyond the arc to give Norwalk a 36-33 lead, Stamford trailed for the rest of the game.

"We just couldn't get a stop at all. We played four different defenses and none of them worked. It's very frustrating as a coach when you score and you can't get a stop," Melzer said.

After leading 40-35 at the half, Norwalk increased its lead to eight points at the end of three quarters. They closed out the quarter with a 7-0 run, including five points from Dear.

The fourth quarter was all Norwalk. Stamford, which connected on 10 3-pointers, couldn't maintain the offensive pace against the Bears.

"We couldn't get a stop," Melzer said. "Felt like they made every shot they took. And the few that they missed, they got the offensive rebound and made the put back. I told our guys we picked the wrong night to have our worst defensive game."

With his team ahead 59-53 with 6:55 left in the fourth quarter 6-foot-5 Saeed Soulemane found himself out on the break ahead of Stamford defenders and went in for a thunderous dunk attempt. The senior Soulemane was looking to bring the house down with an exclamation point play. The effort failed and Soulemane landed flat on his back, but after the game he laughed about the play.

"I thought I had it, but it didn't go my way," Soulemane said.

Norwalk coach Tom Keyes said there are times when he'd like to see his players take the easy basket and not go for the extraordinary play, but Keyes said he was happy Soulemane went for the dunk.

"It's good to see him going up and being aggressive," Keyes said.

After losing a big lead to Central last Saturday, it was important Norwalk could close out Stamford, Keyes said.

"Winning games, sometimes you have a lot of talent but you don't know how to win. This season I think we've definitely made steps to understand how to win a game. To make the right play, to take the right shot, to make a stop when you really need to. This year we did a great job with it and hopefully we can keep doing it," Keyes said.

With the loss, Stamford (6 wins with one game left) was eliminated from state playoff contention because it will be unable to reach the eight wins necessary to qualify.

"We were 1-9 at one point this year. We've come a long way," Melzer said. "It takes character to go from 1-9 to get five more wins. We easily could have given up."

Keyes warned his players prior to the game that Stamford needed to win its last two games to reach the state playoffs.

"Stamford is better than their record indicates," Keyes said. "They still had their state tournament hopes alive tonight. So tonight was a playoff game for them and their players came out and responded with intensity."

Stamford kept the game close thanks in part to deft ball-handling, Keyes said.

"I thought our offense was really good in the first half. I don't think we were as good with our defensive intensity in the first half. Part of that was because Stamford just did a great job of picking apart our press."